LEFTWINGER Anura Kumara Dissanayake has been sworn in as Sri Lanka’s president after a sensational election victory.

Mr Dissanayake who ran as head of the Marxist National People’s Power (NPP) coalition, defeated opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and 36 other candidates in Saturday’s election.

Mr Dissanayake received 5,740,179 votes, followed by Premadasa with 4,530,902.

Chinese President Xi Jinping was one of the first to congratulate Mr Dissanayake on his victory, saying he looks forward to working together “to jointly carry forward our traditional friendship.”

In a brief speech after assuming duty, the new president pledged to work with others to take on the country’s challenges.

Mr Dissanayake said: “We have deeply understood that we are going to get a challenging country. 

“We don’t believe that a government, a single party or an individual would be able to resolve this deep crisis.”

Just before the swearing in, Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena resigned, clearing the way for the new president to appoint a prime minister and a cabinet.

The election came as the country seeks to recover from its worst economic crisis and resulting political upheaval.

Mr Dissanayake is the ninth person to hold Sri Lanka’s executive presidency, created in 1978 when a new constitution expanded the office’s powers.

His coalition is led by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), or People’s Liberation Front, a Marxist party that waged two unsuccessful armed insurrections in the 1970s and ’80s.

After its defeat, the JVP entered democratic politics in 1994 and has been mostly in opposition since then.

The NPP includes groups representing academics, civil society movements, artists, lawyers and students.

Mr Dissanayake was first elected to parliament in 2000 and briefly held the portfolio of agriculture and irrigation minister under then-president Chandrika Kumaratunga.

He ran for president for the first time in 2019 and lost to Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Mr Dissanayake’s first major challenge will be to act on his campaign promise to ease the crushing austerity measures imposed by his predecessor Ranil Wickremesinghe under a pact with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Mr Wickremesinghe warned that any move to alter the basics of the agreement could delay the release of a promised $3 billion (around £2bn) from the IMF.